Volunteers join nature center employees to gather summer sweet.
Heller Nature Center is a sweet place to spend the day. This past week it got even sweeter as employees and volunteers harvested honey from the 20 or so colonies of honeybees that make up the Center's apiary. The bees have been in residence at the Center for over 10 years now, but the honey has only been harvested and sold since 2003. The primary purpose of the apiary is education, but the honey is bottled and sold at the Center, as well as Sunset Foods when the yield is large enough. Proceeds from any honey sales go back into education programs provided by the Nature Center. "The primary purpose is education," said Nature Center manager Jeff Smith. "We do lots of education programs with school groups and the public. They also serve a …
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Heller Nature Center
2821 Ridge Road, Highland Park, IL
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Children and parents put on beekeeper uniforms and explore a bee farm at Heller Nature Reserve.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Ted Regencia
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Monday, September 27, 2010
It was a scene straight from a science fiction movie last Saturday: Men, women and children in white hazmat-like suits marched as if they were ready to board a spacecraft, or escape an alien invasion. The nippy September air and overcast skies hinted rain, but the head of the group, Leah Holloway, showed no signs of turning back. In the shadow of the oak-hickory forest of Heller Nature Reserve, she strode confidently ahead of everyone while carrying a smoldering metallic device. The assembly was en route to smoke out the nature reserve's beehive. Despite the threat of getting stung, the novice crowd of children and parents were buzzing with excitement. "Wow, that is so cool," Jadin Knowles observed as she inspected a swarm of bees …
42.204751
-87.846935
Heller Nature Center
2821 Ridge Road, Highland Park, IL
/articles/children-and-parents-don-beekeeper-suits-get-honey
288848
/locations/2142119
